Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
...ons. According to Cooper, after Carson’s book was published in 1962, people began questioning the real health concerns behind the usage of such chemicals as DDT and other pesticides of the time. The publics concern over these dangerous chemicals lead to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970, which over saw all production, labeling, and usage of pesticides (Hosansky). Cooper revealed how this lead to the banning of DDT usage in the United States in 1972 due to its proven dangerous toxicity effect on all life forms in our world. However, the chemical is still being used today in other countries such as our neighbor Mexico (Cooper). Even though DDT has been banned from all usage in America, its usage in other countries would obviously still make it present in both our food and environment. Pesticide use throughout the world has been proved to cause much more harm than good to our environment. In order to fully understand what exactly pesticides are, one must look at a definition of the word. The Environmental Encyclopedia defines the word as, “chemicals that are used to kill insects, weeds, and other organisms to protect humans, crops, and livestock.” One thing in this definition that would catch nearly anyone’s attention is its statement, “to protect humans.” If anything has been proved over the past half a century, it is that pesticides do exactly the opposite and cause more harm than good to the life of a person. In fact, according to Pesticide in the Environmental Encyclopedia, in 1984 at Bhopal, India, a large amount of “poisonous methyl isocyanate vapor”, used in creating a pesticide, had been released killing over 2,800 people and seriously injuring 20,000. In a report by Mary H. Cooper called Regulating Pesticides, studies in the early 1990’s have shown a link of children’s diseases and breast cancer to pesticides. These pesticides are only increasing in their used amount, and show quite the contrast to the definition of pesticide containing the statement, “to protect humans.” Over the past half century, the public has been fighting to keep pesticides out of our life, while farmers have been fighting for ways to help better their lives and earn a decent living. Cooper’s research shows that without these pesticides, farmers would face an estimated $20 million loss, causing our produce to be much more expensive than it is right now. Many farmers have become scared about the possible loss in money they will face if all pesticides are banned from the market in the United States. However, the tobacco industry is a long contender in the fight against the American public to sell products that are known to addict and kill those who use their product. According to Tobacco Facts, Tobacco use kills an estimate 434,000 Americans each year. That’s more than auto accidents, homicides, suicides, AIDS, cocaine, heroin, alcohol, and all other drugs and fire combined (Tobacco Facts). Tobacco Facts also shows their daily growing popularity which revenues nearly $3.5 billion a year. This is an industry that has killed millions of people and gets away with it. A popular question of the public is why has the tobacco industry been able to stay as one of the largest world corporations for so long? The main reason for this is because the government and the tobacco work together in ways that make an ongoing circle of cat and mouse that will never end. According to Elif Dagli and Yussuf Saloojee, the tobacco industry has avoided being shut down by using, “scientific and other expertise to create controversy about established facts, funding political parties, hiring lobbyists to influence policy, using front groups and allied industries to oppose tobacco control measures, pre-empting strong legislation by pressing for the adoption of voluntary codes or weaker laws, and corrupting public officials.” I believe that the agricultural industry is in-turn doing the same thing. The government could easily go ahead and ban all pesticides that have proved to be harmful to the environment, but it is too afraid of the outcome it will have on our nation. As written about by Cooper, it is known that the agricultural industry will lose millions of dollars if any bans of major pesticides occur due to the loss of crops to weeds, insects, rodents, and mold. The government is afraid to lose all of the money that is annually received from our agricultural industry. Like the Tobacco Industry, The Agricultural industry helps put money in the pockets of congressmen. If I ran a company, I would not vote against myself in earning a smaller pay roll, such as these congressmen are doing when new bills come into Congress in protecting our environment. It is not just the revenue that the government is worried about, but the country as a whole. If America’s agricultural industry begins to fall short in extreme ways do to loss of crops to pests, it will have a major impact on our economy that will call for the loss of many jobs. This is a risk that the government is understandably not willing attempt because of its overall possible impact on our economy. Our economy thrives heavily upon agriculture, and if anything major happens to it, we will see tremendous side affects far beyond high price produce. The Committee on the Applications of Ecological Theory to Environmental Problems explains how as time passes, insects are showing signs of becoming susceptible to certain pesticides that they are constantly encountering. The Committee on the Applications of Ecological Theory to Environmental Problems also explains how because of this, farmers are spraying their crops with harsher chemicals each year in hopes to finally stop the bugs destroying their crops. Today, states Cooper, nearly 850 million pounds of pesticides are being used by farmers a year on products we eat. Even with all of those pesticides being used, the article It’s a bug-eat-bug world: biocontrols are the newest old thing in gardening of The Atlantic Monthly states that around 450 bugs of become known as what are being called “superbugs” because of their high resistance that continues to grow against a large range of pesticides. So after all this has to be said, what can be done that is both cost effective for the farmers and environmentally safe for the public? There are various answers, each with a different overall affect on the minds of those who supply and those who demand, but ultimately laying down a path that we the people must choose in order to avoid destroying the environment more than we have already. One way in growing crops by using as few chemicals as possible is through what has become known as organic farming. According to Gary Gardner, the author of Organic Farming Offers Many Benefits, the term organic means growing produce with out much use of any chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Organic farming is much better for the environment then drowning crops in pesticides due to its reduction in pesticide use, cutting down on soil and water pollution in our environment. This idea has been used for a few years now, and is proving to become a new trend in people’s lifestyles. Gardner notes how organic farmers around the world are beginning to increase in their numbers and watching sales of organic produce grow as the years pass by. Organic foods are beginning to become more popular around the world because of their status of being healthier than that of other produce. The Food Marketing Institute in the United States reported on their conducted study, which displayed a 24 percentage of all U.S. consumers buy some type of organic food at least once a week (Gardner). Gardner describes how organic food demands in Japan lead to an 80 percent increase of Organic produce exports in 1994. Even though Organic foods are much healthier for the body as well the environment, they are still far outweighed in sales against produce that is sprayed with chemicals. Organic foods, though healthier and more environmentally safe than other foods, are not as popular around the world as regular foods. Gardner explains that organic produce is usually more costly than other produce due to its higher labor costs. He also shows another reason for high price organic produce is the lack of competition for organic distribution and sales. However, Gardner counters this by writing about progress to help make organic produce cheaper for the public in the near future by conducting more research to the farming of organic products and raising the competition by creating more organic farms that can sells their produce along side those that sell theirs today. One of the best cost effective and environmentally safe solutions to using pesticides is through what is known as biocontrol. Robert M. Faust, the Senior National Program Leader for the Field and Horticulture Crop Entomology, explains that research in the early 1980’s by a man named Edward F. Knipling, “developed the concept of using specific insect parasites, predators, and other tactics over broad areas to keep pest populations below the point at which they impose a financial burden on farmers and ranchers.” (Faust). According to Faust, this concept had actually been used very long before, with the first accounts in 324 B.C. when Chinese farmers used ants to kill off beetles and caterpillars in their citrus orchards. It was the overwhelming use of chemical pesticides in the mid 1900’s that seems to of offset the idea of what is so much safer and better for the environment. Knipling’s discovery has lead to a new wave of tactics against fighting crop-killing insects leading to environmentally safe tactics that uses a natural process. The writer of It’s a bug-eat-bug world: biocontrols are the newest old thing in gardening in the Atlantic Monthly, notes that almost every living organism on earth has a natural enemy that has theoretically helped to control its population size from growing beyond containment. Using this knowledge, Knipling researched the enemies of the specific insects attacking farmer’s crops and dispersed those enemies in hopes the unwanted insects would be killed off or at least contained on some level (The Atlantic Monthly). In many constructed tests thus far the plan has worked quite well according to Tom Abate of the San Francisco Chronicle, stating that this tactic of fighting bugs with bugs has become apart of what has become known as biotechnology. Pam Marrone, the chief executive of a biotechnology firm call AgraQuest Inc. interviewed by Tom Abate, was quoted in saying, “The biotechnology comes in knowing how to find the right natural predator, and then knowing how to grow it.” But that is often the problem. Finding the best predators of these unwanted insects is sometimes difficult, but if they are found to work, they will kill off the pests and often continuing to die themselves (The Atlantic Monthly). Using these predators that will kill off unwanted bugs can be used on a more simple level by taking the concept into the backyards of regular small time gardeners. When average people decide to go to the local hardware store and purchase chemical pesticides that they will use in their yards, they are on no level trained in how to properly distribute the chemical in the correct dosage, often resorting to these people becoming ill and facing possible death (Hosansky). David Hosansky explains that pesticides are more of an issue on this level because these people are carelessly spraying the chemicals, not thinking twice about how it works, just in hopes that it gets the job done. Because of such improper handling of chemical pesticides by the public, using predator bugs to kill off unwanted pests is almost like finding a gold key that unlocks the door to all the answers. In It’s a bug-eat-bug world: biocontrols are the newest old thing in gardening of The Atlantic Monthly, it is established that for no more than thirty two dollars, a person can purchase a plastic bottle filled with “minuscule parasitic wasps” which are “Aphidius matricariae” can be used to destroy Aphids in a garden. In reference to this article, “aphids suck the vital fluids from roses, mock oranges, astilbes, and foxgloves, among other plants, often introducing one or another disease in the bargain.” (The Atlantic Monthly). Introducing techniques such as these and others to the typical person will help in the path of eliminating dangerous pesticides from being misused by uninformed people with more toxins being added to our environment. An interesting way of eliminating unwanted insects that is currently in the process of being researched and tested has to do with the use of high-powered fans as an insect barrier. According to Robert K Vander Meer in his writing Air Curtains Can Keep Pests Out, he explains the theory of using fans along the boarders of agricultural sites as “high-velocity air curtains.” In fact such techniques are already in use. According to Meer, in a study that has been carried out by the US Department of Agriculture, using two fans that have been vertically attached to each side of a passenger walkway that was attached to the door of an aircraft, 99 percent of flies and mosquito’s were unable to penetrate the “air curtain.” Meer adds that flying insects are not able to cross such a curtain of air that is “moving at least 1 meter per second.” This is a very interesting tactic that should be investigated as much as possible due to its possible outcome of saving our environment and tedious work of constantly tending to unwanted pests. These high powered “air curtains” can actually carry our development of pest control to a whole new level. It may seem pretty unreasonable to line an entire farm that stretches for many miles, with such fans. Not only would it be a task that would take many years for ...